Poll: Do You Buy Clothes That You Never Wear?

A kind reader contacted me about allthisholidaydresscoverage to share her appreciation for the focus on dresses in the (mostly) under $100 category because, as she put it, she only wears them “once or twice” and then, after the holidays those dresses gradually move toward the back of the closet until they are completely forgotten. I understand why this would be the case with dresses in certain textures that are pretty much worn exclusively during the holidays (velvet, for example, or… uh, dresses with reindeer on them)…

But then I realized this is an issue that reaches well beyond holiday cocktail gear. I have a closet full of clothes but I still wake up a lot of mornings and rue my inability to find something I can wear. The consequence of this is I have clothes I seldom wear and even never wear.

There are dozens of reasons why women would devote coveted closet space to mostly neglected items: weight fluctuation, seasonality, impulse trend pieces that went horribly and irrevocably out of fashion, trousers we love that ride up uncomfortably, skirts we love that we can’t sit down in, dresses that we’re constantly pulling or flattening or smoothing that just aren’t worth the hassle, dressy stuff we have no place to wear, damaged/stained/ripped stuff we’ve yet to fix or get fixed, too-itchy sweaters… the list could go on forever.

The fact of the matter is that most women with a closet full of clothes have many they may not wear very often. I think this is a common problem so my question is, how much of your closet is devoted to things you don’t/can’t/seldom wear but keep anyways?